THE GREAT WHIPSNADE RAILWAY
PERHAPS more notice will be taken of the line at the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire during 2020, when big celebrations are planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the railway and the 100th birthday of one of its stalwart locos, Kerr, Stuart 0-6-2T Superior.
Half a century of presenting a unique combination of industrial preservation, intensive passenger services and a track shared with animals from across the globe is a significant achievement.
Industrial preservation you ask?
The railway was built by a company led by the late Sir William McAlpine, one of the great men of the British steam preservation movement. Its steam locomotives originally worked at the substantial Bowater’s Paper Railway operation in Kent.
Passenger carriages hail from the same location, being paper wagons with the simple addition of seats, a protective panelled upper framework and roof. The diesel locos have a notable heritage background and the small fleet of wagons stem from Royal Naval Armament Depots (RNAD).
While the equipment is undisputedly heritage, the railway has never been a preservation project as such. It was built to serve a serious passenger-carrying purpose, enabling people to do something that would not
